Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Strange New Worlds V by Dean Wesley Smith (editor)

Author:Dean Wesley Smith (editor)
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743437783
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2002-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Fear, Itself

Robert J. Mendenhall

Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…

—Franklin D. Roosevelt, twentieth century

Fifteen seconds until hull breach. Fifteen seconds.

Jake Sisko clung to the arms of the crippled shuttlecraft’s only passenger seat, fighting the erratic pull of the failing gravity-field generator. Bile teased its way up his constricted throat. His eyes teared from the acrid smoke that saturated the cabin. Or was it from the raw fear that burned inside him? A wild klaxon wailed above the engine roar and sliced through the incessant ringing in his ears like a saber.

Oh, Dad. Dad, if you can hear me, wherever you are, please help us.

It was a useless plea and he knew it. Benjamin Sisko had disappeared into the realm of the Bajoran Prophets months ago.

Time seemed to slow for Jake, to liquefy. His thoughts drifted lazily in his head. He watched Nog glide past him in an elongated, operatic lunge. The Ferengi said something to Jake—it must have been urgent—but Jake couldn’t understand the words; they were drawn out and distorted.

Jake turned his head away, back to the forward section. It was like swimming through mud and that simple movement made his stomach churn. What was left of the navigator’s station crackled and sparked like lightning. The charred face of Ensign Warren gazed at him through lifeless eyes. She was so young. So pretty. Her gray uniform still smoldered.

“Ten seconds until hull breach,” the computer announced, its feminine voice calm in contrast to the imminent danger it warned of.

“Emergency transporter has been set,” shouted another familiar voice. “Let’s go!”

Jake saw Lieutenant Ezri Dax jump from the command seat and stumble past him. She was a short young Trill with walnut hair that waved over her blue eyes. Jake caught her fresh pine scent even through the stench of burning materials—or was it his imagination?

And then, like Nog a moment before, she seemed to move unnaturally slow. She took a step and then appeared to just hang in midair. He fixated on the line of mahogany spots which circled her round face, ran down her neck, and disappeared under her torn Starfleet uniform. Hard to believe that slender young woman, nearly girlish in her mid-twenties, carried a symbiotic life-form in her abdomen that was over three hundred years old. When he first met her, Jake had been drawn—

Suddenly, Nog was there, grabbing him by his shirt with small, yet powerful, fists and pulling him to his feet. Reality returned with a snap. Jake towered over the small Ferengi, but Nog yanked him toward the aft section with unnatural ease and strength.

“Five seconds until hull breach,” the computer droned.

“Computer,” Ezri shouted as she removed a pair of satchels from the locker behind her. “Emergency beam-out. Engage.”

The computer didn’t acknowledge the command. It simply carried out the instruction.

Jake’s skin tingled with the crawling sensation of molecular dissolution. He smacked at the coppery taste forming in his mouth and blinked his watered eyes as he disintegrated into azure energy.

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